Roof-Reliant Landscaping™ Step 14D: The Roof-Reliant Calendar

The Roof-Reliant Calendar A quarterly water budget, divided into “seasons” that coincide with the climatic and precipitation patterns in the state, is recommended for roofreliant landscapers. The water-budget fiscal year begins on September 1 and ends on August 31.

Roof-Reliant Landscaping™ Step 14C: Other Factors to Consider

• Factor in the seasonal demand. Throughout New Mexico, the period of heaviest supplemental irrigation is typically late June through early July. Using July as the benchmark for maximum supplemental irrigation needed (100%), all other months need less irrigation. For example, in Las Cruces during the month of April, irrigation controllers should be set to deliver only 41% of the total water that is needed for the hot month of July. See Appendix 5 for a chart of monthly waterbudget settings for eight New Mexico locations.

The basics are the same for every water budget. Every time period starts with a projected quantity of water in storage, and a projected quantity of income water in the form of newly harvested precipitation. These two variables will depend on the size of your catchment area, the amount of precipitation captured in a given year and the size of your storage tank. A detailed description of how to calculate the projected quantity of storage and income water is presented in an earlier blog, Sizing Your Cistern.

Roof-Reliant Landscaping™ Step 14A: Water Budgeting

A budget is a numerical estimate that describes a plan for the future use of resources. For the roof-reliant landscaper, a water budget is an accounting of the potential use of water during drier-than-normal years. Such a budget focuses on establishing the appropriate plant material that you expect to install according to your roof-reliant landscape plan.